On Second Thought, Let’s Just Rate All the Lawyers

New York Times:

Legal publications these days are full of lists of supposedly stellar lawyers, which are a nice way to generate advertising and good feelings but perform no particular service. Avvo’s rankings at least take account of lawyers’ shortcomings.

A lawyer for Avvo, Bruce E. H. Johnson, was rated 10, or “superb,” which is a little suspicious. But he was making sense in discussing the suit the other day.

“Most ratings systems are very good at telling us who is super or who is best,” Mr. Johnson said. “But there are very few that tell us where there is a risk of substandard performance.”

“The First Amendment protects statements of opinion and evaluation,” he added. “And ratings are presumptively matters of opinion and judgment.”